Word: linearities
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...same method to human education, Skinner argued that any subject with a logical structure can be "taught in half the time with half the effort." Skinner first did it himself in 1957 by programing a Harvard course in human behavior. Now the best-known programing approach, Skinner's linear method breaks a subject into small "frames" with write-in answer blanks, followed by correct answers...
...Linear Y. Branching. Skinnerians have proved something, but not to the satisfaction of a rival school of anti-behavioral programers led by Psychologist Norman A. Crowder of U.S. Industries' Western Design & Electronics division in Santa Barbara, Calif. While Skinner deplores multiple-choice questions because they contain "plausible" errors that students may remember, Crowder bases his whole approach on multiple choices. Instead of small steps, Crowder programs big chunks of information followed by a question with alternate answers. Choosing a right answer wins the student an advanced frame; a wrong answer sends him to a remedial frame with an explanation...
...then sent scurrying to widely scattered pages throughout the book. This is the "branching" technique, which Crowder developed as an Air Force psychologist while tutoring technicians in troubleshooting on 8-47 bombsights. Crowder believes that his method is better fitted to individuals than Skinner's somewhat Orwellian linear system. Crowder's method is demonstrably effective in such problem-solving areas as labor-management relations...
...dissonant work has to do with the plea of the Roman general Lucullus, for admission to the Elysian fields before a jury of citizens. Although it had several appealing orchestral passages and at least one rousing chorus, the opera for the most part is in what Sessions calls his "linear and severe" mood, with many of the vocal parts written in droning monotone...
Most people know that college degrees include bachelor's, master's and doctor's, but they get lost in the abbreviations. No wonder, reported the U.S. Office of Education last week. In a 324-page book that must have required the toughest translating job since Linear B, the bureau reported that the nation's colleges and universities now issue more than' 1,600 degrees (v. about 60 in 1887), and the system is "chaotic...